December 2012

12/28/2012

Instagram users annoyed with new rules, carried out their threats to dump the popular photo-sharing app. The app acquired by Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) earlier this year for $1 billion, has lost nearly a quarter of its daily active users owing to the debacle.

“[We are] pretty sure the decline in Instagram users was due to the terms of service announcement” on Dec. 17, AppData told The Post.

As per the data, Instagram’s active daily users had fallen to 12.4 million as of yesterday, from the peak of 16.4 million the week it rolled out its policy change, according to The New York Post. The number is equal to a 25% drop, which would mean a $250 million loss for Facebook. The company changed its service terms last week to incorporate advertising. The new terms allowed the company to sell user photos for advertising and promotions “without any compensation to you.” It is impossible to tell if the new terms of service put in place by Instagram came from inside the company, from Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), or was the product of a dialogue between the two companies.

The move caught mass resentment, with celebrities including Kim Kardashian and Justin Bieber expressing outrage. Though Bieber withdrew his threat to leave, but as of yesterday Kardashian, the most followed user, hadn’t posted a picture of herself since the debacle.

David Fewer, director of the Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic at the University of Ottawa.“Those online service providers are asking for something in return,”

COMMENTARY: Instagram created quite an uproar with its users when on Monday, December 17, 2012 it released an updated version of its privacy policy and terms of service, and they included lengthy stipulations on how photographs uploaded by users may be used by Instagram and its parent company, Facebook. The proposed changes were part of Facebook's marketing strategy to monetize Instagram by adding advertising.

The most significant changes in Instagram’s privacy policy and terms of service included:

Instagram can share information about its users with Facebook, its parent company, as well as outside affiliates and advertisers. Instagram said that the changes to its privacy policy are a means to help Instagram “function more easily as part of Facebook by being able to share info between the two groups.” The potentially lucrative move will let advertisers in Facebook’s ad network use data and information that users have shared on Instagram, like details about favorite places, bands, restaurants or hobbies, to better target ads at those users.

You could star in an advertisement — without your knowledge. A section of the new terms of service, titled “Rights,” notes that Instagram will also be able to use your photographs and identity in advertisements. “You agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you,” the new terms say. This means that photographs uploaded to Instagram could end up in an advertisement on the service or on Facebook. In addition, someone who doesn’t use Instagram could end up in an advertisement if they have their photograph snapped and shared on the service by a friend. Facebook already runs ads that make use of people’s activity on its site. Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, an advocacy group in Washington, said that the use of a person’s likeness in ads could run into some state laws protecting people’s privacy. Mr. Rotenberg said. “Most states have laws that limit the use of a person’s ‘name or likeness’ for commercial purposes without consent,” The legal purpose is to allow people to obtain the commercial value of their images and endorsements, which is a big issue for celebrities and others, but also a reasonable concern for Facebook users whose images are used by Facebook to encourage friends to buy products and services.”

Underage users are not exempt. Athough Instagram says people must be at least 13 years old to sign up for the service, the new terms note that if a teenager signs up, they are agreeing that a parent or guardian is aware that their image, username and photos can also be used in ads.

Ads may not be labeled as ads. In another section of the updated terms, the company says ads will not necessarily be labeled as ads. “You acknowledge that we may not always identify paid services, sponsored content, or commercial communications as such,” the company wrote.

Want to opt out? Delete your account. The only way to opt out of the new Instagram terms is to not use the service. If you log into Instagram in any way, including through the Web site, mobile applications or any other services offered by Instagram, you agree to have your content used in ads. Instagram’s new terms of service say that “by accessing or using the Instagram website, the Instagram service, or any applications (including mobile applications) made available by Instagram (together, the “Service”), however accessed, you agree to be bound by these terms of use.”

No wonder Instagram users revolted and Instagram backedoff. The changes, which were to go into effect Jan. 16, 2013, will not apply to pictures shared before that date.

It's now back to the drawing board for Instagram. I have a feeling that Instagram will offer premium photo posts for users who want to promote a particular picture.

Courtesy of an article dated December 26, 2012 appearing in ValueWalk and an article dated December 17, 2012 appearing in BITS

Berlin, Germany-based Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) application metrics provider AppStats has examined the top social games in 2012, and states that Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) is both the biggest loser and the biggest winner of the year.

AppStats revealed that Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) has ‘lost’ over 19 million daily active users during the year 2012, ranging over 7 games. On the other hand, Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA)’s Farmville 2 game is also the largest gainer of 2012 with 8.4 million new daily active users since its launch. AppStats also observed quite a few new developers entered the list of biggest gainers in 2012.

Winners

The winners include Candy Crush Saga from UK-based King.com, taking the second place in that list after Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA)’s Farmville with an upsurge of 7.3 million daily active players this year. Yesterday, AppStats also put the finishing touch to King.com the Social gaming king of the year.

Spanish developer, Social Point’s adventure-filled game Dragon City was ranked third with 4.6 million daily active users. Social Point was founded in 2008.

SongPop, a widespread game by green developer Freshplanet, has been able to attract a large following in 2012 and ranks sixth on the list of biggest gainers of the year. Rovio’s Angry Birds Friends also succeeded to be included in the top 10 games. Angry Birds was ranked at the ninth place.

Social Game Winners for 2012 (Click Image To Enlarge)

Losers

Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA)’s presence in the list of losers is quite noticeable when we look at the biggest losers of 2012 in games category. It has been a dreadful year for the company in many ways, and it won’t help that the top 3 ranks in the series of leading losers of 2012 in terms of daily active user diminution are held in reserve for CityVille, CastleVille and FarmVille.

Overall, Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) games takes 7 out of the 10 places in the top loser’s data with total losses capitulating to over 19.1 million in the top ten. As AppStats reveals in its report, Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) is generally challenging itself: the drops in daily active players come primarily from games like CityVille and Farmville, both of which have released a sequel in 2012. According to AppStats, Electronic Arts game ‘The Sims Social’ ranks as the fourth biggest loser of 2012 with a total loss of 2.4 million daily active users.

It will be worth watching as to how its new games perform in 2013, with competition growing up intensely, particularly from European social game developers.

Social Game Losers for 2012 (Click Image To Enlarge)

COMMENTARY: In a blog post dated December 3, 2012, Zynga announced that it was cutting its ties with Facebook and will begin hosting its games on its own social network. For nearly two years, Facebook has exercised just too much control over Zynga, and takes a 30% commission from every dollar spent on virtual goods by Zynga game players. This has always been a bone of contention for Zynga CEO Mark Pincus.

For the nine month period ending September 30, 2012, Zynga has coughed up approximately $275 million in commissions to Facebook. For the calendar year ending December 31, 2011, Zynga paid Facebook $330 million in commissions. If Zynga hosted all its games on its own social network, Zynga would've generated a profit of $114.22 after-taxes.

In a blog post dated June 29, 2012, I commented on Zynga's announcement that it was developing Zynga With Friends, its own social network. In that post, I was very critical of Zynga's inability to generate new hit games comparable to Farmville and Mafia Wars, and its inability to retain gamers.

Zynga's departure from the Facebook platform will negatively impact Facebook because it will have to replace those revenues with advertising or its own games (something it is rumored to be doing). Based on the latest forecasts, revenues from social games represent about 9% of total revenues.

In previous blog posts dated June 12, 2012.and July 18, 2012, I described in great detail how Zynga's users are ditching it for other online gaming destinations, and that monthly active usage has plummeted to record lows. This information correlates with AppStats's findings for the year 2012. Zynga will probably make the transition from hosting its games on Facebook to its own social network over several months (probably well into 2013).

12/23/2012

A NEW MEDICAL DEVICE WANTS TO MAKE PATIENT VITALS MORE PORTABLE AND NETWORKED, BUT DESIGNING DEVICES FOR THE MEDICAL FIELD IS NOTHING LIKE THE CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SECTOR.

Anyone who’s been unfortunate enough to spend time in an ICU knows: It’s a horribly confining experience. Even for patients who are physically capable of walking around, they’re often so tethered to tubes and devices that it’s impossible. Everyone becomes bedbound.

The ViSi Mobile Monitor, by Sotera Wireless, is a pretty exciting prospect in the medical space. About the size of a flip phone, the monitor straps to your wrist to allow patients to move about without unplugging their electronics. It gets measurements from sensors placed on your body, including blood pressure, heart rate, ECG, oxygen saturation, respiration rate, and skin temperature. And just as important, it sends these measurements via Wi-Fi to a nearby nurses station, allowing medical staff to follow an average of eight to 16 patients at once through a PC.

If none of that made sense at all, know this: The ViSi Monitor allows you to go to the bathroom without triggering an alarm that your heart has stopped.

The ViSi Mobile Monitor is basically a set of ICU machines that can fit on your wrist (Click Image To Enlarge)

On one hand, the ViSi Monitor has a lot of potential for disruption.

It’s portable and networked--two words that aren’t so common in the medical world. On the other hand, it’s no sleek and sexy iPod touch. It’s a clunky little piece of hardware, with a 160x128 pixel screen and an interface that looks inspired by the medical field itself. I wondered, where is the white space? Where is the aluminum and glass? Where is the gorgeous typography? Where are the high-resolution images?

But it has another trick, too. Thanks to Wi-Fi syncing, it can sync with a PC for the nurse to monitor up to 16 patients at once (Click Image To Enlarge)

“These guys aren’t cheap, this is something that’s going to live on a person. It has to deal with all sorts of real-life situations no one wants to talk about.”

Immediately, I consider the difficulties Jawbone had crafting their Up, while simultaneously having flashbacks to the three people I know who’ve broken their iPhone 5 screens in the past month. It makes sense. But what about that, can I say, sort of ugly display?

And not only can nurses and doctors see the data from that moment; they can pull up a patient’s history of vitals since checking in (Click Image To Enlarge)

Martin says.

“This project wasn’t about innovation, it was about very clear information design in a compacted space. In the medical space, you’re not innovating for innovation’s sake, which you may be doing on a consumer product. You’re actually looking very carefully on how to maintain the status quo while enhancing the experience.”

In medical design, maintaining the status quo is literally an issue of life and death. When Martin took the project, ViSi handed him a 2.5-inch-thick book of medical device interface requirements, and every page proved important at some point in the project.

The ViSi monitor is currently in a few hospitals in the U.S. and U.K. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Its regulations are rigid. The screen is always black (for low-light rooms). Green always conveys heart rate. Yellow always conveys respiration. Is it aesthetically perfect? Is it organizationally ideal? Maybe not, but these standards reach across geographic and language barriers to allow nurses and doctors showing up in any hospital to instantly understand what they’re looking at.

Martin says.

“When something not calm is happening in a patient’s room, the biggest visual cue that can guide your eyes besides size is color, which kind of makes me curious when I see medical dramas on TV that have machines with purple and blues. You really start getting into the nuances of information hierarchy.”

Big numbers and bold, set colors--these ideas drive the monitor’s design. But even with strict guidelines in place, user testing was important. And in this regard, there was really only one audience that mattered: the nurses.

Martin explains.

“We mocked the interface up in flash and put it on a PDA in front of them. We’d trigger various events and ask them to interpret what they were. Then we’d ask, ‘How’d it work? Is that what your eye is looking out for? It’s something we have an opinion about, but our opinion doesn’t matter, because the nurses are living with it as part of their job.”

The nurses were remarkably precise in their criticisms. Often, points became as granular as how a button blinked when pressed--idiosyncratic design elements that would only strike a cohort of professionals.

With so many predefined boundaries set by regulation and professional preference, building the ViSi Monitor’s interface was the sort of work you can’t possibly approach with an ego. Even still, Martin admits that he would make a few simple design changes to the medical field, if he could--especially in terms of updating icons to have more literal interpretations.

Martin says.

“I’d just bring it up to speed in terms of being modern. A lot of the icons are fairly esoteric. What they mean today on the devices they’re showing up on don’t mean what they used to.”

The ViSi Mobile Monitor's display icon's are not esoteric, but designed to prevent confusion as to what each means (Click Image To Enlarge)

Case in point: the symbol during alarms in medicine is a triangle with a line through it--not a bell or something with an analog reference. Martin explained that when the visual was first imagined, this shape actually referred to a specific, physical failure within the hardware of a machine. Now, nurses may still know what it means, but only because they’ve learned the language.

Indeed, from a regulatory standpoint alone, good design in the medical field may never be what it means in the world of consumer electronics. But at the same time, I think we can all sleep a little better knowing that, when a nurse comes to check our vitals on a device like the ViSi Monitor, there won’t be some accelerometer-based physics animation standing in the way.

Currently, the device is going through limited testing in the U.S. and U.K.

COMMENTARY: Having been wired during a lengthy hospital stay, you never get used to the discomfort of the contacts on your chest and lines hooking you up to the EKG monitors or having a nurse wake you up in the middle of the night to take your blood pressure, heart rate and other vitals. It's a miracle that I was able to get any sleep during my hospital stay. The Visi Mobile Monitor is definitely a welcome change, because the nurse can see all of your vitals on a mobile monitor attached to your wrist and you can take the entire system with you if you are moved to another room. The wireless capability, size and mobility of the device could make it a hit with the hospitals.

About a month ago, the company got a quick nod by the tech community and a shaky video by StartupGrind that caught the group during a work day. Jump to 2:38 for the interesting stuff, see company president Alex Vardakostas speak, joke about their CAD model and give a brief explanation about the power of their product.

Customization occurs through a simple user interface, allowing the button-pusher to opt out of certain ingredients and add extras of stuff they like. When it’s done doing the assembling, it even puts the burger into a bag, if that’s what your company needs it to do.

Momentum Machines robotic burger is equipped for containers that automatically add mayonnaise, mustard and catsup to each hamburger (Click Image To Enlarge)

Vardakostas even commented on the possible additions of proteins outside of beef patties. He said they plan on integrating chicken sandwiches and fish sandwiches into the technology, and that their current setup isn’t too far off from handling such requests.

“The machine is already capable of handling different sizes of buns, tomatoes, et cetera. It’s also really customizable in that the restaurant owner can tell us the proportion sizes desired of each ingredient and we can very easily modify the machine to suit their demand.”

Daily upkeep for potential restaurant users involves reloading the machine with ingredients “every once in a long while.”

The finished robo-burger as it comes off of Momentum Machines' robotic hamburger maker (Click Image To Enlarge)

The anticipated output is currently around 360 hamburgers per hour.

The aim of the robot, which remains without a name currently, is to produce food more consistently, with higher quality and at a lower cost.

Ultimately, a sterile machine opens the opportunity for a much more sanitary work environment. For those that think burger making robots sound superfluous, let the ramifications sink in.

Vardakostas notes that their potential customers include “hamburger restaurants of all kinds, food trucks, airports, train stations and other high traffic locations.”

Most exciting, as Alex put it, is all the new restaurant concepts that could be unleashed with their technology as the backend.

The utility for a restaurant owner is evident, less people on the line with more output. If Momentum Machines does their due diligence, it may even be beneficial to make available an adaptable API — opening the floodgates to unique visual ordering experiences.

COMMENTARY: Vardakostas grew up with firsthand exposure to the labor that goes into the burger-making process—his father owns a mini-chain of burger joints in Southern California. He turned his childhood experience into the idea for a company. Vardakostas said.

"I thought, 'What's the one tool a restaurant could have to destroy its competition'"

He estimates that their invention will save the standard quick-service restaurant $135,000 a year in wages, and build a more consistent product.

However, rather than making plans to peddle their apparatus to existing fast food restaurants, Vardakostas and his friends seem more interested in starting a restaurant of their own. Vardakostas says.

"Fast food sucks, and we want to change all that."

They envision a restaurant with a menu similar to that of a Five Guys or In-N-Out, but without the vast, stainless steel kitchen full of cooking equipment and scrambling employees. All the food prep will be done by machines, with human staff working the register and delivering the food. Vardakostas said.

"Maybe we'll have the cashier behind a podium with just a garden or vines on the wall behind them."

He explained the company's vision for how their machine-powered restaurant would be a serene landscape compared to the typical fast food environment.

I like the idea of a robotic hamburger making machine, but Momentum Machines must test their system thoroughly in order to insure that the finished hamburgers meet their high premium quality standards, the equipment can keep up with orders, and can produce burgers without mechanical breakdowns. They must also have a backup system in place to insure that they can produce those burgers in the event of machinery failure. Those finished hamburgers sure look good and tasty looking, but I believe that they are at least a year before they launch their first fully-automated hamburger operation.

Having your own hamburger restaurant is a great way to take the robotic hamburger making system through its paces, fix any mechanical issues and insure that the burgers produced meet its high premium quality standards. It will also serve as a test bed that they can use to prove the effectiveness and reliability of the system should they decide to franchise their restaurants or license the technology to end-users.

Courtesy of an article dated December 19, 2012 appearing in Robotic Trends and an article dated October 11, 2012 appearing in Serious Eats!

Devices from two startups could be used to treat people with anxiety disorders—and one of the devices may eventually diagnose pain.

Amid rising concerns over post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental illnesses, two MIT startups are developing wrist-worn sensors that can detect physiological changes—including perspiration and elevated temperature—that may signal the onset of events like anxiety attacks.

The data collected by these devices can be fed into an algorithm that aims to learn what triggers anxiety, or when people may be about to engage in a risky behavior. One goal is to head off destructive behavior, from drug abuse to suicide and violent outbursts, and to help with treatment.

The newest of these startups, Boston-based Neumitra, emerged from stealth mode earlier this year with a device that can measure proxies for excitement or stress, including increased motion, increased skin conductance from perspiration, and elevated skin temperature. The device, called bandu, sends readings to the wearer’s smartphone, which records them for later analysis. The device also includes a display that can be customized to suggest, say, that you take your medication, call a loved one, or listen to a song.

Neumitra’s wrist-worn sensor detects elevated perspiration and temperature associated with stress or excitement and can relay messages to the wearer (Click Image To Enlarge)

The challenge is teasing out exactly which physiological changes are linked to stressful events. Researchers also must filter out noise, such as perspiration from exercise or excitement from watching a favorite sports team. Some improvements will come from self-learning algorithms.

The Neumitra device is already being used in new research efforts at Massachusetts General Hospital, including ones to help patients suffering from PTSD and other anxiety disorders. The aim of the research is to create detailed records of what is triggering anxiety, says Darin Dougherty, director of MGH’s division of neurotherapeutics. While it is early days for the technology, he says, the device has the potential to fill a diagnostic gap.

Dougherty says.

“Previously, treaters had to rely on the patients’ subjective memory for the week, or weeks, between appointments as their sole measure of anxiety symptoms.”

The device “provides moment-to-moment objective data regarding a patient’s anxiety symptoms,” and both the doctor and patient can see it.

Robert Goldberg, a neuroscientist and Neumitra founder, points to a grim national backdrop: one in three U.S. adults has a form of mental disorder—ranging from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder to PTSD—making it the third-largest category of health-care spending. More soldiers now die of suicide than in battle. Goldberg says.

“My goal is to bring mobile portable technologies to brain health.”

Neumitra’s underlying technology is similar to that used by a commercial device made by Affectiva, a startup from MIT’s Media Lab that has made recent inroads in medical research.

The company’s Q sensor has been used for more than a year in trials with an undisclosed company that is attempting to develop a physiological measure of pain. This would be an enormous advance, as pain diagnoses currently rely entirely on patients’ self-reporting.

The device is also in clinical trials to help measure drug efficacy in sufferers of Rett Syndrome, a genetic neurological disorder that can cause loss of speech, problems with motor coördination, and impaired cognitive function. The goal there is to see whether the drug is producing any measurable changes in patients’ stress levels, movement, and sleep patterns.

Affectiva's Q Sensor 2.0 is an 'emotion' sensor that is worn on the wrist (Click Image To Enlarge)

Affectiva has made recent advances in other medical applications. In a recent study, the device showed it can serve as a proxy detector for a type of epileptic attack associated with sudden death. More than 50,000 people a year die of seizures, and most are unexplained. But in a few cases where the victims died wearing headgear that can measure the brain’s electrical activity (an electroencephalogram or EEG), clinicians found that brain waves were unusually suppressed.

Rosalind Picard, a cofounder of Affectiva and director of affective computing research at the Media Lab, says that physiological responses measured by the Q sensor are associated with this same type of suppressed brain activity (which is not always fatal). Picard says.

“We now have a correlate that is much easier to use than wearing an EEG all the time.”

Clinical trials using the device in epilepsy patients are being planned, she adds.

The Q sensor can also help predict outbursts in autistic children, who often have difficulty verbalizing their emotions (see “Sensor Detects Emotions through the Skin”). Picard says her company is also working on ways to detect changes that may signal that a person is about to engage in risky or destructive behavior, such as drug abuse or even an outburst of violence.

Affectiva is currently focusing on supplying researchers—a single device costs $2,000, but the price is in the mid-hundreds when they are sold in quantity—including the software and support. The company is not currently marketing to consumers, but a consumer version might be available in a year or two, Picard says.

Goldberg says the Neumitra device will sell for $249 to $1,499, depending on features and analytics, and will be made available to consumers, as well as researchers and other organizations, sometime in 2013.

Goldberg says the company was inspired in part by a war veteran who was having anxiety attacks. Three years into therapy he realized that one source of his stress triggers were his visits to a Whole Foods supermarket. For him, the experience—strangers, suddenly appearing from a maze of lanes, holding objects—felt threatening. He says.

“Whole Foods was a trigger point. We could have given him the same information in a week.”

Goldberg made a map of his own stress triggers, including several hot spots on and around the MIT campus. He says he realized those were from rushing to events, and from being asked to speak publicly, as he did recently at a health startup event.

He says.

“We see in healthy individuals—stress associated with real-world events. I can point to my own—public speaking is one of the major categories of phobia.”

Ultimately, with enough people wearing stress monitors, he says, a company could find what was making employees stressed out, city officials could learn where women felt unsafe, and a nation could even take its collective stress pulse.

After the event, Goldberg invited me to put on the bracelet. He then asked me to recite the alphabet backwards in front of several strangers, who watched with a gleam of schadenfreude in their eyes. I lost my way around “W.” Goldberg, watching readings on his smartphone, said my wrist sweat and temperature indicated my stress was up 50 percent.

Although the technology is still experimental and the devices are used mainly in medical research, they herald the appearance of consumer versions and associated apps that let people monitor their mood and stress levels. Other emerging technologies aim to detect emotion using subtle cues from how people use smartphones (see “A Smartphone That Knows You’re Angry”).

COMMENTARY: I know of a friend who is bipolar, and goes through frequent periods of emotional highs and lows. It's when this person goes into depression that worries me the most because she drinks a lot, and has gone from one rehab program to another. I hope that Neumitra and Affective can use their devices to detect when biopolar disorder patients are going into depression so that medications can be used to control their disorders.

12/22/2012

Over the past few years there have been tantalizing reports that scientific progress was on the cusp of creating a real life invisibility cloak. But upon a closer reading, these experimental technologies didn’t amount to much beyond reminding us just how far off we are from the fictional universe of Harry Potter.

University of California researchers announced last year that they had developed a metamaterial fully capable of hiding objects from the naked eye. The breakthrough does, though, lose much of its luster considering that they’d still have to figure out a way to scale up the technology to mask objects beyond the size of a red blood cell.

Duke University just last month announced a diamond-shaped design that bent light around an object so perfectly, it even concealed shadows. Too bad the illusion only worked when looking straight and in one direction.

HyperStealth Biotechnology Corp. created the following mock-up photos to show the public what they claim their 'invisibility fabric' (Click Image To Enlarge)

Now, a little-known Canadian defense firm called HyperStealth Corp claims to be closing in on a breakthrough technology that should soon lead to a true, in every sense of the term, invisibility cloak. And to allay skeptics, company CEO Guy Cramer told CNN in an interview that they’ve even garnered strong interest from the U.S. military after demonstrating to officials how the fabric’s light-bending properties prevent the wearer from being detected entirely.

Development of the material codenamed “Quantum Stealth” has been kept shrouded in secrecy. The project’s web site reveals very few details about how the technology actually works, except that it’s lightweight, inexpensive and reduces 95 percent of an object’s shadow. The page also includes a few mock-up photos that illustrate what the material’s remarkable camouflaging effect would look like, along with an explanation from Cramer as to why they’ve decided to at least go public with their design.

Click Image To Enlarge

According to the site, Cramer started to receive a lot of attention from the media after giving a talk at a military trade show about the company’s development of an inexpensive and lightweight “light-bending material.” He said.

“After enough press had been written on the subject, the U.S. Military Command finally asked to see the real material to verify that it worked. Those meetings took place with very limited ‘Need to Know’ access and the technology is now moving forward.”

Click Image To Enlarge

If substantiated, the implications are tremendous. Snipers would be able to position themselves covertly with very little risk of being spotted, while troops could use the cloak to elude capture or to carry out surprise raids against enemies. On a more ambitious front, the invisibility-inducing material may even someday enable aircraft and ships to take the notion of “stealth” to a whole new level.

However, Cramer says that, once available, it’s likely that only the military will have access to the Quantum Stealth’s special effects, at which point, it’ll be hard to hide the collective excitement.

COMMENTARY: Guy Cramer, President and CEO of HyperStealth, said that there have been similar inventions over the years but his is the only one with a 360-degree view.

He said he isn’t able to discuss details or do demonstrations of Quantum Stealth for security reasons, but claims several military groups in Canada and the U.S. have expressed interest.

Cramer said.

“We’ve also got a countermeasure for the device to be able to detect it. It [costs] about $100 to $200 per soldier which is about what their uniforms are costing them right now.”

Only mockup photos are currently available to the general public.

Colin Worth, a recently retired RCMP officer, said he went to Ottawa with Cramer to demonstrate Quantum Stealth in front of the Canadian Armed Forces.

Worth said.

“I don’t have a vested interest in the company or the technology, but I’ve seen it work. The stumbling block last time I talked to Guy was how does he make it big enough and how does he make it portable enough to work in a real life situation?”

Worth said that he signed a secrecy and confidentiality agreement so he isn’t able to give any details, but said “stuff just seems to disappear. It’s weird the way it works but it does work.”

Bill Jarvis, a retired Navy Seal, also said he has seen the fabric work at U.S. Military Command meetings.

Cramer said that he would consider marketing Quantum Stealth to the general public only if the military allowed him to do so.

He hasn’t been approached by any Harry Potter fans yet.

On October 19, 2012, Guy Cramer, President/CEO of Hyperstealth Biotechnology Corp. announced its new cloaking technology called "Quantum Stealth." Here's a copy of that press release.

12/21/2012

Americans may be fleeing from stocks in droves, but they sure aren't shy about rotating the resulting meager liquidation proceeds into weaponry. According to Gallup, "Forty-seven percent of American adults currently report that they have a gun in their home or elsewhere on their property. This is up from 41% a year ago and is the highest Gallup has recorded since 1993, albeit marginally above the 44% and 45% highs seen during that period." Considering the social situation "out there", and the fact that the world is one badly phrased or translated headline away from a complete HFT-facilitated market collapse, this is hardly all that suprising.

Click Image To Enlarge

More:

The new result comes from Gallup's Oct. 6-9 Crime poll, which also finds public support for personal gun rights at a high-water mark. Given this, the latest increase in self-reported gun ownership could reflect a change in Americans' comfort with publicly stating that they have a gun as much as it reflects a real uptick in gun ownership.

Not surprisingly, republicans pack more heat than democrats. Perhaps it is best not to piss too many off...

Republicans (including independents who lean Republican) are more likely than Democrats (including Democratic leaners) to say they have a gun in their household: 55% to 40%. While sizable, this partisan gap is narrower than that seen in recent years, as Democrats' self-reported gun ownership spiked to 40% this year.

Click Image To Enlarge

Women are more armed than ever. Perhaps it is best not to piss too many off...

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Southerners, yes shocking, are the best armed of all. Perhaps it is best not to piss too many off...

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Gallup's conclusion:

"A clear societal change took place regarding gun ownership in the early 1990s, when the percentage of Americans saying there was a gun in their home or on their property dropped from the low to mid-50s into the low to mid-40s and remained at that level for the next 15 years. Whether this reflected a true decline in gun ownership or a cultural shift in Americans' willingness to say they had guns is unclear. However, the new data suggest that attitudes may again be changing. At 47%, reported gun ownership is the highest it has been in nearly two decades -- a finding that may be related to Americans' dampened support for gun-control laws. However, to ensure that this year's increase reflects a meaningful rebound in reported gun ownership, it will be important to see whether the uptick continues in future polling."

COMMENTARY: If you believe that the U.S. has too many guns and that we need tougher gun regulations, post it here. I want to hear from gun owners, especially why they have a gun, how they use their guns, and how many guns you own. I hope you will also read my blog post dated December 14, 2012 which paints a very dark pictue of the gun situation in the U.S.

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Courtesy of an article dated October 26, 2011 appearing in ZeroHedge.com

12/20/2012

Facebook’s new Nearby local search feature could become a Foursquare killer one day. So far, however, it’s not as comprehensive, deep or personal for users. But if Facebook can get its 600 million mobile users to think of it as a local search utility, look out.

Each month 250 million Facebook users tag posts with location. Today that data goes to work for you in a major revamp of Facebook’s Nearby feature for its iOS and Android apps. Built by Josh Williams and the Gowalla team that Facebook acquired last year, Nearby helps you discover nightlife, shopping, restaurants and more based on the Likes, check-ins, and recommendations of your friends and other users.

I got to spend the weekend trying out the feature that will rollout first to 1 percent of users later today and all users soon. Here I’ll review Facebook’s impressive first attempt at local business discovery, discuss its potential to earn money while delighting users, and explain why it spells trouble for apps like Yelp and Foursquare.

HOW FACEBOOK NEARBY WORKS

Starting today when you open the Nearby tab from the Facebook for iOS or Android navigation menu, you won’t just see a list of Places to check in like before. Instead you’ll see a relevancy-sorted list of local businesses and landmarks that Facebook thinks you’ll be interested in. Similar to how it ranks stories in the news feed, Nearby looks at a ton of signals to determine what to show you first, including friends who’ve Liked a business, checked in, left a short text recommendation, or given the Place a star rating.

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Along with an omni-list of locations, you can search for specific spots or browse by categories, including Coffee, Hotels, Outdoors, and Nightlife. There’s also detailed sub-categories so you can browse for Mexican restaurants, brunch, or sports bars, or Shopping retailers such as clothing, electronics, groceries, or books.

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Results are shown on a split-screen map and list, and they give you plenty of context so you know what you’re looking at. Each listing shows a business’ name, category, profile pic, address, distance, star rating, and the names of friends who Like it. Move or resize the map and you can see the top results for any area.

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Tap into one and you’ll see Facebook’s brand-new mobile design for Places Pages that offers quick access to business hours; buttons to Like, call, or check in somewhere; recommendations from other users; and a slick way to leave your own hot tips on the best dishes or nights to drop by. If you want to visit, a directions button opens your device’s default maps app. You can also toggle over to see the Place’s Timeline of recent updates.

IS IT HELPFUL?

Yes. Nearby is a truly mobile-first interface designed for browsing over typing. I’ve been very impressed by how well the relevancy-ranking algorithm works. I’m big into nightlife and so are my friends, so it was great to see Nearby pulling out local spots I’d dig like concert halls and outdoor bars.

By combining rankings and recommendations with Likes and check-ins by friends, I not only know a place is high-quality, but that’s it’s my style — something Yelp can’t really do. I had no idea there was a Creole restaurant down the street from my apartment, but with four-stars and a Like from a good buddy, Nearby found me something I’m excited to try.

In your own city, Facebook’s plentiful data provides accurate suggestions of what to check out, but it could also be a big help when you’re travelling. You could follow the tracks of the few friends you know who live where you’re visiting, or go by the ratings and recommendations of strangers. Facebook began letting peopleleave recommendations on the web in mid-2011 and through the mobile websitein January. Now those are turning up in Nearby to help you figure out what to order or what to do at a place once you’ve decided to go there.

There’s certainly some kinks to fix. Spots in the “Outdoor” category sometimes are actually indoor venues. If you search for “Mexican” it will bring up the option to browse the Mexican restaurants category, but Facebook doesn’t know to do the same if you search for “taco.” It just gives you restaurants with “taco” in the name.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR NEARBY?

Right now Nearby is very static. It doesn’t even show you Places where friends are currently checked-in. That has to change. If a friend is checked-in at a Nearby Place, that should be called out in the results and used as a strong signal of relevance.

Facebook Events is also sorely missing from the experience. Facebook should work into Nearby results Events that I’m invited to, as well as Suggested Events that my friends are attending so I don’t miss a party down the block.

WILL IT MOVE THE NEEDLE FOR FACEBOOK?

For now there are no ads in Nearby, but there sure are plenty of ways Facebook could add them. Most obviously, Facebook could let businesses pay for sponsored placement in results.

“Your business would show up fourth, for a fee it will show up first”.

On mobile where people don’t have time to do a ton of comparing, those ads could drive serious foot traffic and sales for businesses and become an important revenue stream for Facebook. Similar ads could show up if you search for a business in Nearby.

Facebook could also start pushing hyper-local ads into the standard news feed. If Facebook detects you’re within a half mile of a business it thinks is relevant to you, it could show you an ad linking to that place’s Nearby mobile Page.

SHOULD YELP, FOURSQUARE, AND OTHER LOCAL DISCOVERY STARTUPS BE WORRIED?

Yes. Simply put, people are already spending so much time on Facebook that they might be happy to stay in it to find local businesses rather than opening another app. Local discovery services only work if you have plenty of data. Foursquare still only has around 30 million users. Facebook’s location services have 250 million users a month. It might not have the long-tail of reviews or the advanced spam protection of Yelp, but it knows where your real friends go.

The feature is also Facebook’s first big foray into search. At Disrupt, CEO Mark Zuckerberg got investors salivatingby talking about how Facebook is uniquely positioned to addresss questions you’d normally ask a search engine. He gave the example of wondering

“What sushi restaurants have my friends gone to in New York in the last six months and Liked?”

Nearby has the answer.

In the end, people want recommendations they can trust, and those don’t come from strangers. They come from people you know who share your tastes — your friends. Nearby lets you discover the world through their eyes.

COMMENTARY: A businessneeds to have a Facebook Page to show up on Nearby. Some listings appear to be automatically generated but others businesses will need to get on Facebook to make Nearby really useful for users. Facebook also sometimes struggles with multiple pages for one location and doesn’t pick up new restaurants that fast. The company said that it will also be incorporating more third-party data so this should improve soon.

Facebook’s local data also has less depth. When you visit an actual page for a business, you get the ability to see information like hours and address and you can call the restaurant up, check in or “like” it. There’s a user-based rating systems as well as recommendations left by users. This is nice but it doesn’t provide the same richness you can get on Foursquare.

For example, a popular Peruvian chicken restaurant in my neighborhood had two recommendations on Facebook. On Foursquare, the same place had 28 tips and 50 pictures. Also, with Foursquare pages, you can save the place on a list, get directions, book a table and see a menu. And if the place is part of a saved list, you can check out what other users also like similar to that restaurant. Foursquare also provides a rating on a 10-point scale for locations, based on popularity and user interactions with more weighting given to local experts. I appreciate that more than Facebook’s simpler five-star system which can often lead to a lot 3.5 star ratings.

Again a lot of this has to do with Foursquare’s experience in local search and its refinements over the years including one earlier this week. But the differences aren’t just manifested on the surface.

Foursquare has been using its more than 3 billion check-ins and other interactions to tune its Explore recommendation engine. That input helps Foursquare come up with more unique and personal suggestions. While Facebook recommends local businesses based on friends who have liked a business, checked in, rated a restaurant or left a recommendation, Foursquare looks at tips, likes, dislikes, overall popularity, user loyalty to a location, and the local expertise of top visitors. It also factors in whether a place is listed on one of its user-created lists. And then it looks for matches for users based on their tastes or people like them. It also considers the time of day, so the recommendations change more frequently throughout the day.

Facebook has its advantages too like its more than 600 million mobile user base. That can be helpful because it potentially means more input from real friends. And for some users, what Facebook currently provides will be enough; they may not be looking for the level of detail that Foursquare provides. But the challenge is to get people to think of using Facebook’s mobile apps and website as a local search engine, something most people aren’t trained to do. Facebook isn’t helping by hiding the Nearby tab inside the menu bar. That’s going to take a while for people to discover.

Facebook should be more competitive once businesses start running local ads that appear in the main news feed. That’s not happening yet but when it inevitably does, it will encourage people to check out the Nearby tool. And if Nearby starts displaying local deals like Foursquare does, it will be another reason to take it for a spin.

As Nearby grows, it could steal away existing Foursquare users and pick off others before they give it a try. That’s something Foursquare absolutely needs to defend against. But right now Facebook has just dipped its toe into the market and has a lot more to do to get competitive.

The irony? It’s going to use Foursquare activity from a user’s Facebook friends to improve the recommendations in Explore.

Think of it as Foursquare judo: It’s using Facebook data to battle against Facebook itself. Touché!

If Facebook can add a voice-activated like Siri for Apple's iPhone, I think they may really have something. This certainly opens the door to monetization either through sponsored stories ads. The revenue potential is humongous, so I do feel for Foursquare, but not so sure how this will affect Yelp. Yelp offers a tremendous history of reviews for merchants and restaurants, something Facebook will not be able to offer, but it is best to keep things simple for now.

Courtesy of an article dated December 17, 2012 appearing in TechCrunch and an article dated December 19, 2012 appearing in Gigaom and an article dated December 19, 2012 appearing in Search Engine Land

Mobile, social, gaming, data, special offers — all converge in new and creative ways. As the big online players acquire technologies that broaden their eco-systems and enrich communications, marketers are seeing tremendous opportunities to augment their messages and capture customer loyalty through digital. In the year ahead, digital marketing budgets are expected to increase by 50%-150%.

Here are some of the trends that will drive their activities in 2013:

Near Field Communication: According to Juniper Research, half of all mobile devices will be NFC-enabled by 2016. Powered by this technology, consumers will be able to view customized rich media, receive targeted special offers, share their experiences and most importantly, make purchases, via their devices. For marketers, NFC holds promise because it can directly integrate promotions at point of sale.

Gamification: To make campaigns more interactive, marketers will continue to turn to gaming, which offers consumers a fun, memorable and sometimes educational way to immerse themselves in a brand experience. Per Gartner, more than 70% of Global 2000 organizations will have at least one gamified application by 2014. The best will reward consumption and loyalty (My Coke Rewards), feature game winners on brand properties (Domino’s Pizza Hero) and drive even more online word of mouth as winners promote themselves (Ben & Jerry’s Capture Euphoria).

Second Screen: More than 80% of people use second screens while they watch TV, with 30%+ using them to delve deeper into content related to the first screen. As laptops, smart devices and tablets become even more pervasive, expect to see marketers leverage this trend to engage viewers in real-time conversation, deliver behind-the-scenes peeks and push bonus content that links directly to retail.

Wearable Tech: Miles walked, calories shed, even hours of REM sleep – if humans do it, apps and devices can measure it. According to IMS Research, the wearable technology market is expected to exceed $6 billion by 2016. Used mostly now for health and wellness applications, expect to see more devices for entertainment , like Google Glass. lMarketers will use this technology to acquire rich data on customer habits and goals, making it easy to target deals: “You’re not sleeping well! Test-drive our mattress today – here’s your closest store.”

Cineprint: Amid an ongoing debate over “the death of print,” technologies like CinePrint will breathe new life into the medium. The most popular example of CinePrint was executed by Lexusthis October. In the future, we can expect to see CinePrint used for products with features enhanced by a virtual tour or motion.

Geofencing: Retailers are welcoming geofencing as they look for new ways to convert window-shoppers and those who visit their stores to check out products they plan to buy online. Brands can partner with retailers to “close the sale” by providing rich mobile content and deal notifications whenever a consumer walks through their store’s door or visits a specific aisle. About one-third of Americans use location-based services. In a recent survey, many said they would exchange privacy for discounts.

Augmented Reality: Use of Augmented Reality ("AR") has been forecast to grow at an impressive rate. Although fairly new and still developing, AR can offer consumers a wealth of reality-bending experiences. One might involve a shopper who wants to try on a dress from the comfort of her home. Through an app (or even her Webcam), AR can show her if it’s a perfect fit before she buys.

Most of these tools will require some work by marketers, which have to make the experience compelling enough for audiences to opt-in. Once they do, the payoff is a wealth of data and point-of-sale opportunities that can take consumers beyond likes to loyal.

A major challenge for suppliers is to establish and expand the number of compelling use-cases for wearable devices. Key success factors include device size, non-invasiveness, ability to measure multiple parameters and provide automated feedback that improves user behaviour.

Increasingly, wearable devices must accomplish multiple tasks in order to be considered significantly useful. This means integration of multiple sensors and transducers, support for different connectivity profiles and reduced power consumption; thus creating opportunities for both brand manufacturers and component suppliers.

What makes gamification so attractive is the fact that we generally enjoy actively participating and engaging with others through entertainment. It is in our human nature to interact and be entertained with playful applications, particularly when there are engaging game design elements employed.

M2 Research estimates that the total market for video games, video game rentals, subscriptions, digital downloads, casual games, social games, mobile games and downloadable content will top $50 billion (not including hardware sales) in 2012. Some of the most successful video games exceed movie sales. For example, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which launched in November, 2011, was the most successful product launch in history, grossing more than $1 billion in its first 16 days of sales. In comparison, the most successful movie of 2011, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, grossed $381 million.

And while Call of Duty breaks sales records across entertainment genres, it is still not a title that resonates with all consumers. The booming success of more casual, social, and mobile gaming touches a wide range of age and gender preferences. Games such as Bejeweled, Farmville, and Angry Birds come from a crop of companies ‐ PopCap, Zynga, and Rovio ‐ and have helped open the floodgates to the number of people playing games. In particular, social games appeal to amuch broader demographic than traditional games. These games are played by men, women and children of all ages. Children between the ages of 8 – 15 say they now visit Facebook more than any other site on the Internet.

The Social Element

This explosion of games appeals to a wider mass market audience and has greatly expanded the notion of who and how people play games. Social games today heavily rely on the largesocial networks of Facebook in the US, as well as GREE and DeNA in Japan. These social networks provide the perfect environment for social collaboration and user delivery.

Google's DoubleClick division estimates Facebook's user base at 970 million users (January 2012). This is not quite half of the entire Internet population, which stands at just over 2 billionusers worldwide, according to Internet World Stats. DoubleClick estimates that Facebook receives 33 billion visits from its user base per month, which translates to just over one visit per day per user, on average. Per visit, those users click on 31 pages and stay for more than 23 minutes, generating a stunning 1.4 million user‐years per month.

Social games are reaching a significant portion of Facebook users. The top five social app/gaming companies on Facebook now reach a combined 430 million monthly active users, according to App Data. The enormous reach of social platforms and their dramatic mass‐market impact makes them increasingly important vehicles for communication and interaction capabilities to deliver on gamification goals.

M2 Research forecasts the market in 2012 to reach $242 million and climb to $2.8 billion by 2016. Enterprise gamification is quickly gaining share of the overall gamification market and is set to capture 38% of gamification revenue in 2012. In 2013, enterprise gamification will exceed consumer gamification revenue.

As with many emerging platform technologies, gamification has quickly gone from a horizontal market to decisively more vertical orientations. There are a number of vertical markets centered on key industries. The primary vertical markets include: Entertainment, Retail, Media & Publishing, Enterprise, Education and Healthcare/Wellness. Each of these markets supports both consumer and employee‐level engagement initiatives.

There is now a solid core of platform vendors and service providers servicing this market, that includes Badgeville, Bunchball, BigDoor, iActionable, Gigya, Seriosity and PugPharm to name a few. In addition to these vendors, there are a number of agencies developing their own expertise in the space. These agencies sometimes partner with the platform vendors or look to implement their own gamification toolsets. Finally, there is a growing number of companies that go through the build‐it‐yourself model in an effort to create a competitive offering around their own product and brand. Whatever the case, a real industry is starting to take shape with its own trends,technology components and processes.

For a thorough discussion of gamification technology, I highly recommend that you read M2 Research's report "Gamification in 2012." This is a great way to determine whether your business can benefit by adopting gamification strategy in the coming year.

Near Field Communication (NFC) Technology

NFC is a sister to Radio Frequency Identification or RFID. Both technologies use microchipsthat transmit information wirelessly. However, RFID is used to transmit a wireless signal over a distance of a few meters like that used in luggage tracking, toll tags, meters, etc., NFC, on the other hand, is used over distances of just a few centimeters (thus the "near field") for end-user applications that have some kind of personal identification attached to it, and that is under the control of the user.

NFC chips are incorporated right into your smartphone’s circuitry. Juniper Research thinks that about 20 percent or 300 million phones worldwide might have NFC capabilities by 2013. By 2016, analysts believe there will be 550 million NFC-enabled phones, and when NFC phones have become mainstream, the tags that talk to them could one day be as commonplace as a barcode.

2015 - The value of all mobile money transactions is expected to reach $670 billion. Digital goods will make up nearly 40% of this market. Asia Western Europe and North America will be responsible for 75% of all mobile payment transactions.

As of today, only 0.1% of the users are using augmented reality products. It is estimated that in the coming five years, 1% of the population will be using this application; which is an exponential rise in the overall market. As the market will grow up, many categories of application will incorporate augmented reality features; particularly in retail, travel, and gaming application. The world will witness the use of these applications across all domains.

At present, North America and Europe are the major contributors in the augmented realityapplication market; but, in the coming five years, Japan, China, and South Korea will have a major chunk in the market share of augmented reality. Right now, the augmented reality application market is liberated by small companies with talented developer squad. As the augmented reality application market will grow, it is expected that established industry players will increase their involvement.

On April 4, 2012, Google officially revealed Project Glass, a pair of glasses with a headsup display (HUD) that layers digital information over the real world. The AR HUD glasses are expected to be marketed sometime in late 2013.

The growth of the augmented reality applications market is expected to be exponential with therevenue growth from $181.25 million in 2011 to $5,155.92 million by 2016, at a CAGR of 95.35%from 2011 to 2016.

The most attractive of all the segments is the smartphones segment; followed by the tablets, and so on. The major players that provide software for augmented reality are Total Immersion (France), Metaio (Germany), Wikitude (Austria), Zugara (U.S.), and Layar (The Netherlands).

CinePrint Technology

If you happen to stumble across the ad for the 2013 Lexus ES (see below) in your favorite magazine, you'll be able to bring it to life using a technology the carmaker's ad agency is calling CinePrint. But 'technology' is a generous description since all it does is use an iPad placed under the page to play an animation which enhances the still imagery in the ad.

So why can't iPad users just download the accompanying app and watch the animation whenever they want? Oh, they can? Then why would anyone wait until they came across this ad in a magazine to try it out—and more importantly—why are people still buying magazines if they own an iPad? Hopefully you put more thought into your vehicles, Lexus. [YouTube viaSlashGear]

Geofencing Technology

Retailers desperately hope the technology—called "geofencing"—can be at least one successful response to the dreaded "showrooming," where a shopper comes into a store to see an item but then makes the purchase online after finding a better price via smartphone.

The idea behind geofencing is to target consumers when they are nearby—and the promotions can get hyper-local, like beaming a special on umbrellas to people within a 10-mile radius during a rainstorm, or touting a markdown on aisle 6 when a customer is walking down aisle 3.

How Geofencing Works (Click Image To Enlarge)

But adoption by shoppers has been spotty, retailers report, underscoring a fundamental imbalance of power when it comes to mobile. While consumers have figured out to use smartphones to retailers' disadvantage by checking the prices elsewhere, chains are still fumbling around for a way to use mobile phones to boost sales.

Some 15% of respondents to a recent survey said they use their mobile phones in stores to compare prices to online-only rivals, according to market research firm Forrester Research. But fewer consumers use their devices in ways that could be beneficial to brick-and-mortar retailers: 8% of respondents said they used their phones to "check in" to stores, and 7% said they used phones to learn about in-store promotions or events.

12/19/2012

Cancer is a leading cause of death in many wealthy countries, and its toll is rising in poorer regions. A 2012 study in The Lancet Oncology predicted that from 2008-2030, cancer incidence will rise 75 percent globally and will double in the least developed countries. Explore this data visualization to learn more.

COMMENTARY: Developed nations like the U.S. and those in Europe have higher cancer rates than those in developing and under-developed countries. There has to be a correlation between wealth and cancer, but what is it?